black-feminist-though-by-patricia-hill-collins

THE POLITICS OF BLACK FEMINIST THOUGHT17ers in Black communities, as members of Black churches, and as teachers to theBlack community’s children have formed one pivotal area where African-American women have hammered out a multifaceted Black women’s standpoint.Musicians, vocalists, poets, writers, and other artists constitute another groupfrom which Black women intellectuals have emerged. Building on African-influencedoral traditions, musicians in particular have enjoyed close association withthe larger community of African-American women constituting their audience.Through their words and actions, grassroots political activists also contribute toBlack women’s intellectual traditions. Producing intellectual work is generally notattributed to Black women artists and political activists. Especially in elite institutionsof higher education, such women are typically viewed as objects of study,a classification that creates a false dichotomy between scholarship and activism,between thinking and doing. In contrast, examining the ideas and actions ofthese excluded groups in a way that views them as subjects reveals a world inwhich behavior is a statement of philosophy and in which a vibrant, both/and,scholar/activist tradition remains intact.Objectives of the VolumeAfrican-American women’s social location as a collectivity has fostered distinctivealbeit heterogeneous Black feminist intellectual traditions that, for conveniencein this volume, I call Black feminist thought. Investigations of four basiccomponents of Black feminist thought—its thematic content, its interpretiveframeworks, its epistemological approaches, and its significance for empowerment—constitutethe core of this volume. All four components have beenshaped by U.S. Black women’s placement in a political context that is undergoingconsiderable change. Thus, Black feminist thought’s core themes, interpretiveframeworks, epistemological stances, and insights concerning empowermentwill reflect and aim to shape specific political contexts confrontingAfrican-American women as a group.In this volume, I aim to describe, analyze, explain the significance of, andcontribute to the development of Black feminist thought as critical social theory.In addressing this general goal, I have several specific objectives. First, I summarizeselected core themes in Black feminist thought by surveying their historicaland contemporary expression. Drawing primarily on the works of African-American women scholars and on the thought produced by a wide range ofBlack women intellectuals, I explore several core themes that preoccupy Blackwomen thinkers. The vast majority of thinkers discussed in the text are, to thebest of my knowledge, U.S. Black women. I cite a range of Black women thinkersnot because I think U.S. Black women have a monopoly on the ideas presentedbut because I aim to demonstrate the range and depth of thinkers who exist inU.S. Black civil society. Placing the ideas of ordinary African-American women as